Oxford

A week ago the whole Hansard Scholars program took a trip to Oxford for a day of lectures instead of having class. It was perfect weather for a day trip, the sun was shining over the nearly 900 year old college town by the time we got off the train.

Oxford University is actually made up of 36 small colleges, each with their own specialty. We headed straight for pretty Nuffield College, with a beautiful enclosed courtyard for our first lecture with the legendary professor who started seriously doing election polls in Britain.

We got lunch on the high street at an Indian restaurant, I didn’t know what I was eating, but it was some sort of delicious spicy lamb and pea concoction, and nan, because you always need nan.

After lunch we met at Carfax Tower to walk over to Queens College for the second lecture. Queens College was much bigger than Nuffield, with a quad enclosed by tall ornate buildings. The outdoor hallways around the edge of the quad were arched, I felt like I was at Hogwarts. We had another interesting lecture about the rise of the Conservative party in Britain before splitting up to go on various adventures around the city.

The architecture of Oxford is varied because the city and colleges were built in so many different time periods, but nearly every building you pass is old and gorgeous. Everything looks like Hogwarts, because it is. They shot scenes from the Harry Potter movies all around Oxford. So clearly, my afternoon adventures were a Harry Potter mission.

Our first stop was the Bodlein Library, Oxford’s main library and where they shot some Harry Potter library scenes. We took a tour of the place and learned a ton about the intricate building and library systems that have been in place for hundreds of years. The building is older than our country. We were able to sneak a peek of the Divinity School (closed on Mondays, of course!) where they filmed the hospital scenes and the scene where Professor McGonagall teaches Ron to dance.

After the tour we made our way to Christ Church College, where the Great Hall is as well as a bunch of hallways used in the Harry Potter movies. We were there by 4:45, but the campus closed to visitors at 4:30, which broke our hearts. We ended up wandering around the outskirts of the college while Rebecca devised ways to break in, then decided to meet up with Bhumi and Kelsey near the river.

For dinner we walked back across Oxford to eat at a great little Italian restaurant Bhumi’s friend recommended, stuffed ourselves with carbs, then headed back to the train station.

I immediately looked up grad school programs at Oxford, because I’m so in love with the place, but they don’t have any media or PR programs. However, the trip has made me seriously consider grad school in another country. I’ve started looking up programs, so we’ll see.